Customer Context
Business Context
Luxury Escapes is scaling their tours division but their current technical landscape is limiting growth. Tours are purchased from DMCs and sold directly or as bundled packages. Bundles include: another tour from the same or different DMC, a cruise sourced from a cruise operator, hotel accommodation from their internal bedbank, and extensions/upgrades. Their current Salesforce implementation for tours is cumbersome — opportunity tracking only supports one supplier per tour, payment terms use an unreliable sliding scale model, and critical commercial data lives in text fields. The result is a system that cannot be trusted by finance, product load, or commercials teams. Sales teams don't trust the inventory, though achieving the sale itself is not an issue. Key questions the current system cannot reliably answer: What is the current margin on a specific departure? What is the financial risk exposure across future departures? How does profitability change as load factors increase?
Timeline
Team
Competitive Context
Assumptions
- •Salesforce is extended, not replaced — Kaptio provides a travel-native data model and workflows, and integrates with the existing LE stack
- •Kaptio becomes the core reservation system for tours (Inventory, Product, Pricing, Bookings, Departure Management, Supplier Invoices, Accounts)
- •Hotel/accommodation business remains on Admin platform and is out of scope for Kaptio
- •Admin integrates with Kaptio for online tour bookings in an e-commerce fashion (booking data flows from Admin to Kaptio)
- •Vendor Portal integrates bidirectionally with Kaptio — Kaptio pushes occupancy, manifests, and departure information; Vendor Portal supplies product information, availability, and sliding scale prices
- •Existing Salesforce tours data (product data, supplier contracts, operational information) will be migrated to Kaptio data model
- •Redundant Salesforce custom objects and text fields will be phased out after migration to Kaptio
- •Missing context — number of Kaptio user licenses required
- •Missing context — data migration volume and complexity (how many tours, suppliers, bookings to migrate)
- •Missing context — whether Zendesk integration with Kaptio is required or Zendesk continues independently
- •Missing context — whether SendGrid integration with Kaptio is required or email communications are handled by Kaptio natively
- •Missing context — go-live timeline and phasing preferences
- •Missing context — payment gateway selection for tours division
What We Know
Discovery progress and unanswered questions that affect estimation confidence.
Discovery Progress
56% CompleteDelivery Plan
18 outcomes across 3 phases — what we deliver and how we get there.
aWhat We'll Deliver
Core Foundation
(4 included)Product Experience
(5 included)Channel
(4 included, 1 deferred)Advanced
(5 included, 2 deferred)bHow We'll Get There
Implementation Phases
3 phasesPhase 1 — Foundation & Catalog
Platform setup on existing Salesforce, service catalog (DMCs, cruise operators), pricing configuration (sliding scale), tour package building, customer/account model, security.
Foundation phase. Kaptio installed on existing Salesforce org. Existing tours data migrated from custom objects to Kaptio data model.
Phase 2 — Bookings, Integrations & Operations
Booking workflows, Admin integration (e-commerce), Vendor Portal integration (supplier data exchange), departure management, documents, payments, communications.
Core operational phase. Admin and Vendor Portal integrations are critical path items.
Phase 3 — Reporting & Supplier Payments
Commercial reporting and dashboards, supplier payment management. Addresses the core pain point of financial visibility.
Reporting is a primary value driver — enables margin, risk exposure, and profitability analysis that the current system cannot provide.
Risks & Next Steps
Known risks and open questions that need answers before finalizing.
Risks (4)
Existing Salesforce implementation is heavily customised by a third party — migration complexity may be underestimated
Mitigation: Detailed data audit of existing Salesforce objects, fields, and automations before scoping migration effort.
Admin and Vendor Portal integrations are critical path — delays in integration design or API availability would block core functionality
Mitigation: Early integration architecture workshop. Confirm API capabilities of Admin and Vendor Portal before implementation starts.
Multiple systems holding different pieces of the same commercial picture — data reconciliation during transition period
Mitigation: Clear data ownership boundaries between Kaptio (tours) and Admin (hotel/accommodation). Defined integration contracts.
Sliding scale pricing model complexity — Kaptio Price Models must accurately replicate current commercial terms across variable pax counts and bundled products
Mitigation: Pricing workshop with finance team to validate Price Model configuration against real commercial scenarios.
Open Questions (14)
Sorted by priority — high priority questions have the biggest impact on estimation confidence.
How many Kaptio users are needed? What roles and teams will use the system?
highDrives licensing, security model, and training scope. No team size information captured.
What is the target go-live date and what is driving the timeline?
highNo timeline or go-live driver has been discussed. Needed for phasing and capacity planning.
How many active tour packages are currently sold? How many DMC suppliers?
highDrives catalog complexity, data migration effort, and service catalog configuration scope.
What is the annual booking volume for tours? Seasonal patterns?
highDrives system sizing, go-live timing, and operational workflow design.
What are the Admin platform API capabilities for the e-commerce booking integration?
highAdmin-to-Kaptio integration is core to the solution architecture. Need to confirm API availability, data format, and real-time vs batch.
What are the Vendor Portal API capabilities for the supplier data exchange integration?
highBidirectional Vendor Portal integration is core to the solution. Need to confirm what data can be pushed/pulled and in what format.
What payment gateway is used for tours? Is it the same as hotel/accommodation?
mediumPayment processing scope depends on gateway selection and whether Kaptio Pay is needed.
What currencies does the tours division sell and purchase in?
mediumMulti-currency configuration affects foundation setup and pricing complexity.
What is the data migration scope from existing Salesforce? Volume of records, custom objects, automations?
mediumExisting Salesforce was built by a third party with text fields and workarounds. Migration complexity needs assessment.
Is Zendesk integration with Kaptio required, or does Zendesk continue operating independently?
mediumZendesk is used for service/customer queries. Integration scope affects Phase 2 effort.
Is SendGrid integration with Kaptio required, or will Kaptio handle email communications natively?
mediumSendGrid is currently used for email. Need to determine if Kaptio replaces this or integrates.
What document types are needed? (Quotes, confirmations, invoices, vouchers, travel docs)
mediumCurrent process uses SharePoint templates and manual PDF/email. Edge Docs scope depends on document types.
Does the phased approach need to include the white label agent portal, or is that a future engagement?
lowWhite label agent portal mentioned in discovery but not discussed in detail.
What is the cutover approach? Hard cutover for tours or parallel running during transition?
lowAdmin platform continues regardless. Question is about the tours Salesforce data transition.
Statement of Work
Draft SOW status and link to the generated document.
No SOW Draft
No Statement of Work has been generated yet for Luxury Escapes.
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